"Então foi horroroso o que se passou. Exu pegou três pauzinhos de erva-cidreira benta por padre apóstata, jogou pro alto, fez encruzilhada, mandando o eu de Venceslau Pietro Pietra vir dentro dele Exu pra apanhar. Esperou um momento, o eu do gigante veio, entrou dentro da fêmea, e Exu mandou o filho dar a sova no eu que estava encarnado no corpo polaco. O herói pegou uma tranca e chegou-a em Exu com vontade. Deu que mais deu. Exu gritava: "Me espanca devagar/ Que isto dói dói dói!/ Também tenho família/ E isto dói dói dói!" Enfim roxo de pancada sangrando pelo nariz pela boca pelos ouvidos caiu desmaiando no chão. E era horroroso... Macunaíma ordenou que o eu do gigante fosse tomar um banho salgado e fervendo e o corpo de Exu fumegou molhando o terreno. E Macunaíma ordenou que o eu do gigante fosse pisando vidro através dum mato de urtiga e agarra-compadre até as grunhas da serra dos Andes pleno inverno e o corpo de Exu sangrou com lapos de vidro, unhadas de espinhos e queimaduras de urtiga, ofegando de fadiga e tremendo de tanto frio. Era horroroso. E Macunaíma ordenou que o eu de Venceslau Pietro Pietra recebesse o guampaço dum marruá, o coice dum bagual, a dentada dum jacaré e os ferrões de quarenta vezes quarenta mil formigas-de-fogo e o corpo de Exu retorceu sangrando empolando na terra, com uma carreira de dentes numa perna, com quarenta vezes quarenta mil ferroadas de formiga na pele já invisível, com a testa quebrada pelo casco dum bagual e um furo de aspa aguda na barriga. A saleta se encheu dum cheiro intolerável."
And then what transpired was horrific. Exu took three small sprigs of lemon balm—blessed by an apostate priest—tossed them into the air, formed a crossroads, and commanded the *self* of Venceslau Pietro Pietra to enter into him—into Exu—to take a beating. He waited a moment; the giant’s *self* arrived, entered the female form, and Exu ordered his son to give a sound thrashing to the *self* that was incarnated within the Polish man’s body. The hero grabbed a heavy club and laid into Exu with all his might. He struck him again and again. Exu screamed: "Beat me gently! / For this hurts—it hurts, it hurts! / I have a family, too! / And this hurts—it hurts, it hurts!" Finally—purple from the blows, bleeding from his nose, mouth, and ears—he collapsed to the ground, fainting. And it was horrific... Macunaíma ordered the giant’s *self* to take a scalding, saltwater bath; Exu’s body steamed, drenching the ground. Then Macunaíma ordered the giant’s *self* to walk barefoot over broken glass, through a thicket of stinging nettles and thorny burrs, all the way to the jagged peaks of the Andes—in the dead of winter; Exu’s body bled from glass shards, was torn by thorns, and blistered from the nettles, while he panted with exhaustion and shivered uncontrollably from the cold. It was horrific. And finally, Macunaíma ordered the *self* of Venceslau Pietro Pietra to endure the goring of a wild bull, the kick of a wild horse, the bite of a caiman, and the stings of forty times forty thousand fire ants; Exu’s body writhed upon the earth—bleeding and blistering—bearing a row of teeth marks on one leg, forty times forty thousand ant stings upon skin that was now barely visible beneath the wounds, a forehead shattered by a horse’s hoof, and a puncture wound in his belly from a sharp horn. The small room filled with an intolerable stench.
"Macunaíma passou então uma semana sem comer nem brincar só maquinando nas brigas sem vitória dos filhos da mandioca com a Máquina. A Máquina era que matava os homens porém os homens é que mandavam na Máquina... Constatou pasmo que os filhos da mandioca eram donos sem mistério e sem força da máquina sem mistério sem querer sem fastio, incapaz de explicar as infelicidades por si."
Macunaíma then spent a week neither eating nor playing, doing nothing but brooding over the sons of the manioc’s fruitless battles against the Machine. It was the Machine that killed men, yet it was men who commanded the Machine... He realized with astonishment that the sons of the manioc were the owners—without mystery and without strength—of the Machine—without mystery, without will, without satiety—which was itself incapable of explaining its own misfortunes.
"Não concluiu mais nada porque inda não estava acostumado com discursos porém palpitava pra ele muito embrulhadamente muito! que a máquina devia de ser um deus de que os homens não eram verdadeiramente donos só porque não tinham feito dela uma Iara explicável mas apenas uma realidade do mundo.
He reached no further conclusions, for he was not yet accustomed to formulating speeches; yet it stirred within him—albeit in a most jumbled, confused manner—the intuition that the machine must be a god, of which men were not truly the masters, simply because they had failed to render it an explicable *Iara*, leaving it instead as mere worldly reality.
"Tinha turquesas esmeraldas berilos seixos polidos, ferragem com forma de agulha, crisólita pingo-d’água tinideira esmeril lapinha ovo de pomba osso de cavalo machados facões flechas de pedra lascada, grigris rochedos elefantes petrificados, colunas gregas, deuses egípcios, budas javaneses, obeliscos mesas mexicanas, ouro guianense, pedras ornitomorfas de Iguape, opalas do igarapé Alegre, rubis e granadas do rio Curupi, itamotingas do rio das Garças, itacolumitos, turmalinas de Vupabuçu, blocos de titânio do rio Piriá, bauxitas do ribeirão do Macaco, fósseis calcáreos de Pirabas, pérolas de Cametá, o rochedo tamanho que Oaque o pai do Tucano atirou com a sarabatana lá do alto daquela montanha, um litóglifo de Calamare, tinha todas essas pedras no Grajau."
There were turquoises, emeralds, beryls, polished pebbles, needle-shaped iron ore, chrysolite, teardrop crystals, ringing stones, emery, small geodes, pigeon-egg stones, horse-bone stones, axes, machetes, chipped-stone arrowheads, *gris-gris*, rock formations, petrified elephants, Greek columns, Egyptian gods, Javanese Buddhas, obelisks, Mexican tables, Guianan gold, ornithomorphic stones from Iguape, opals from the Alegre Stream, rubies and garnets from the Curupi River, *itamotingas* from the Garças River, itacolumites, tourmalines from Vupabuçu, titanium blocks from the Piriá River, bauxites from the Macaco Stream, calcareous fossils from Pirabas, pearls from Cametá—and the massive rock that Oaque, the father of Tucano, had shot with his blowgun from high atop that mountain, along with a petroglyph from Calamare; all these stones were there in Grajaú.
"Tudo ele contou pro homem e depois abriu asa rumo de Lisboa. E o homem sou eu, minha gente, e eu fiquei pra vos contar a história. Por isso que vim aqui. Me acocorei em riba destas folhas, catei meus carrapatos, ponteei na violinha e em toque rasgado botei a boca no mundo cantando na fala impura as frases e os casos de Macunaíma, herói de nossa gente. Tem mais não."
He told the man everything, and then he flew toward Lisbon. And that man is me, folks. And I stayed behind to tell you the story. That is why I came here. I squatted down atop these leaves, picked off my ticks, strummed my little guitar, and, with a wild, unbridled flair, I sang out to the world, recounting in impure speech the phrases and tales of Macunaíma, the hero of our people. And that is all.
